Almanac

Around Town: Firefighters hold chili cook-off

San Mateo County Firefighters will hold their fifth annual chili cook-off from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at San Mateo's Central Park, located at 50 E. Fifth Ave. in San Mateo.

Fire departments from all over the Bay Area will host booths severing their specialty chili. For $10, visitors be able to taste all the different choices and receive a beverage and a bowl of their favorite chili.

Live music will be provided by West Bay Rhythm and Club 90. All proceeds will benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. No reservations are required.

Help for homeless

female veterans

InnVision Shelter Network, a nonprofit serving the homeless along the Peninsula, has received a $35,000 grant from Swords to Plowshares to fund programs for female homeless veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that nearly 10 percent of the 200,000 female veterans in California either have been or currently are homeless. InnVision says it serves approximately 55 female veterans each year, many with children, and the new funding will help support outreach efforts, mental health care, a mentoring program and intensive case management in addition to transitional shelter.

Karin Jaffe named

college professor

Karen Enstam Jaffe has been named a tenured professor in the Department of Anthropology at Sonoma State University, where she has been a faculty member since 2002. She is the daughter of Sandra and Dennis Enstam of Portola Valley.

In 2007 Professor Jaffe created a primate research program, called "SSSUPER," a collaboration between the university and local zoos.

Professor Jaffe holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the University of California, Davis.

As an undergraduate, Ms. Jaffe studied the behavior of Bornean and Mamatran orangutans. From 1997 to 1999, she lived in Kenya, doing dissertation research by studying the ways vervet and patas monkeys struggle against predators.